Whoever said 'Nekorundayo' about that last chapter, bless you. Yang would be proud.
"It should have been obvious, Yang!" Sable repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time. "How did we miss it? Our own teammate, hiding that under our noses!"
"Yeah..." Yang said blankly. "Kind of feel like an idiot, not figuring it out sooner."
Idiots indeed. He might as well put on a dunce cap and call himself Whitley. So the boy who fought as if he'd never been to combat school in his life, had, in fact...never been to combat school in his life. Who would have guessed? In hindsight, even the worst school on the planet wouldn't let a student graduate with his Aura still locked, let alone fail to teach him what Aura was. "What the hell do we do?" 'Teammate turns out to have entered Beacon on false premises and makes anguished confession before fleeing' had not been one of the scenarios he and Weiss had imagined, oddly enough.
"Oh gods!" Yang's eyes went wide. "He said we'd be better off without him! You don't think he's going to...end it..."
"OH SHIT!" That snapped them out of their stupor in an instant. Sable burst out of the room and across the hall to pound frantically on Team RRWN's door. "Open up!"
"Can't you knock like a normal person, Sable? What's the meaning of this racket?" Weiss answered the door, looking quite cranky. She took in their panicked expressions. "What—"
"HELP US FIND JAUNE!" Sable shouted at her. "He confessed that he faked his way into Beacon and then he ran away and said we'd be better off without him and we're afraid he went to jump off the roof or something!"
"WHAAAT?!" shrieked Ruby, rushing past them and vanishing down the hall in a burst of rose petals. "JAUNE NO! CHOOSE LIFE!"
To their relief, they didn't find any splattered blond corpses lying around Beacon, but nor did they find any other trace of Jaune Arc. After two hours, with the shattered moon high in the night sky, they finally gave up the search.
"He's most likely gone to Vale." Ren surmised. "He had time to catch one of the last Bullheads into the city, and I doubt he'd want to linger here after what happened."
Sable looked ready to launch himself off a cliff and formulate a landing strategy to get down to Vale. So did Ruby. Nora cackled softly, producing an aviator's cap, flight instruction manual, and several grenades seemingly from nowhere. "Don't even think about it!" Weiss warned them. "How do you plan to find one person in an entire city? In the dead of night?" She steered her partner and brother back towards their rooms. "Right now, you need to rest. We'll reconvene in the morning."
"Come on, guys. Maybe he just needs some time to cool off." Yang said, not very convincingly. "Might be we'll wake up tomorrow, and this'll all fix itself!"
The next morning, things did not magically fix themselves.
Sable woke up to find Jaune's bed empty. None of their late-night rage texts had been answered, or even marked as read. Just great, he'd probably turned his Scroll off. Not even a semester into Beacon and they were already down a teammate, with no way of getting him back. This was a nightmare.
Well, was it really? From a combat standpoint, nothing of value had been lost. If anything, the time and effort they'd spent training a boy who had no business at this school could now be spent in more productive ways. They didn't even need his J to spell 'Strawberry'! Looking rationally at the situation, he should have been delighted to be rid of the Arc.
So why wasn't he?
"Um, Icy-Hot?" Yang came to a disturbing realization. "Where's Blake?"
"This is freaky..." Ruby muttered.
Weiss could only nod in agreement. They were in Team SJBY's room, along with the sorry remnants of said team. It had been Ruby's idea to check in on their siblings, give them a pep talk after the events of last night, and start planning Operation Get Jaune Back Dang It (her partner's naming ability left much to be desired). She had not expected for that team to somehow lose another member. Sable and Yang stared silently at their Scrolls, still in their pajamas. Weiss would normally applaud the pair for learning some volume control, but this...was just unnatural. The most disturbing part was that neither of them had done their hair. Sable wouldn't be caught dead with a bedhead on most days, and Yang's care for her golden locks was the stuff of legend by this point.
"Blake not answering you either?" Sable asked dully. Yang shook her head. It probably didn't help that Blake and Jaune's ghosts still hung around the room...metaphorical ghosts, as neither of them were dead. Hopefully. A crumpled blue onesie lay on Jaune's bed (good gods, that boy had no fashion sense), while Blake's books still sat neatly in their little stacks.
"And you don't have any idea where she went yesterday?" Weiss asked.
"She only said she had to run some errands, and we didn't want to pry." Yang smiled weakly. "Man, that sounds sort of fishy, doesn't it? Like the kind of excuse you'd give your dad if you wanted to go to some rager? Maybe she's sleeping off a hangover somewhere."
Weiss did not think so, and neither did Yang, judging from her tone. She couldn't say she knew the dark-haired girl well...or at all...but Blake still struck her as a serious, responsible type. Not the kind of person to mislead her team so she could attend some debauched party. There was also no way her father would allow her to attend a 'rager' no matter the excuse, but that was neither here nor there.
"You don't think she's in trouble, do you?" Ruby said anxiously. "I mean, it's not like some mugger could just take down a strong Huntress!" She faltered. "But there's some dangerous people out there..."
"The White Fang!" Weiss and Sable hissed. It wasn't exactly a secret that the Schnee children were attending Beacon, and with some research, one could probably find out who their teammates were. And if those scum were really active in Vale...it was just like them to target someone for associating with the family, even if it were only through the luck of picking the same chess piece. Still, they should have received something, like a ransom message or list of demands. Unless the local Fang cell was particularly unpleasant, in which case they might be getting Blake bits in the mail. Ew.
"Is it always the White Fang with you two?" Yang looked uneasy. "That's kind of dark, isn't it? There must be some innocent explanation for all this! Right?"
"What could it possibly be?" Sable got up, pacing around the room. "I don't believe that she'd just leave! Why would she? Blake didn't fake her transcripts, clearly!" He gestured at the mini-library in the room. "And she left all her books behind!"
"Her books! That's it!" Ruby exclaimed. She started rifling through Blake's stacks. "Does she keep a journal, or a planner or something? She might have her plans written down!"
"Normally, I would consider it rude to read someone else's diary." Weiss remarked. "But I suppose you can be excused, considering the circumstances."
"Aha!" Ruby proudly held up a volume with a plain black cover. "I think this might be it!" She flipped it open.
"..."
Ruby froze in place, her jaw agape and her face turning the color of her namesake gem. "Rubes? What is it?" Yang hurried over. "Does she have some horrible secret—OH MY GODS!" She ripped the book from her sister's hands. "I don't believe that girl! Keeping something like this in plain sight!" Yang turned the page. "Wow!"
"Why..." Ruby whimpered, curled into a ball. Yang, Weiss and Sable were still searching through the books, judging from the groans, gagging noises, and occasional Yang whistles coming from their huddle. All three had flatly refused to let Ruby read any more, not that she'd wanted to. How could someone do that to perfectly good chocolate and whipped cream? People didn't even have taste buds down there!
"My gods." Weiss slumped down next to her, seeming dazed. "The faunus erotica...so much faunus erotica."
"Now, let's not kinkshame her, Weissicle." said Yang. "But holy Brothers on roller skates, that thing with the cheese grater!" She patted Ruby's hair in a comforting manner. "Don't worry Rubes, that isn't how babies are made. It's something that happens when two people, uh, love each other very much and have very specific interests. And when Blake gets back, you...uh, you probably shouldn't be alone with her, just to be safe..." Sable shoved all the books underneath Blake's bed so they wouldn't have to look at them anymore. They sat there for a long time, trying in vain to unsee what had been seen.
"Say, Icy-Hot..." Yang broke the silence. "Was it just me, or did that one guy kind of look like you? And that other—"
"Why! Why would you bring that up?" Sable sighed. "Well, that was useless. In fact, let's never speak of it again." He shivered a little. "I've got nothing. Maybe we should just take it to the staff, have them keep an eye out for her." Yang nodded.
"What about Jaune, then?" Ruby asked. "He's still missing too!" She knew something had been off about with him that day, darn it! She was still such a bad friend! If only she'd given him a few more cookies, none of this bad stuff would have happened. What were some fake transcripts, compared to a bag of warm chocolate-y goodness?
"What about him?" Weiss sounded rather less worried. "It sounds to me as if he simply realized he was in over his head. He's likely on his way back home as we speak. In my opinion, it's for the best."
"Weiss, that's mean..." Ruby whispered.
"It's the truth." Weiss made no apologies. "The Beacon curriculum assumes a basic level of competence, and without that it'd be a matter of time until he got himself seriously hurt. Or got someone else hurt." Yang and Sable looked uneasy at those words, but neither spoke up for their teammate (ex-teammate?). Ruby wanted to say something in defense of her friend (ex-friend?), but failed to see any holes in her partner's logic. Welp. It was only fitting she'd let Jaune down one last time.
"Besides, Pyrrha Nikos still needs a team! It seems that you'll get what you wanted after all, Sable." Weiss continued. "From the bottom to the top, as it were."
"I don't want her." Sable did not seem the least bit excited by the prospect, a downright bitter expression crossing his face. Weiss stared at him in astonishment.
"Huh? Why not?" Yang seemed just as confused. "I mean, I'm not happy we lost Jaune, but Miss Pumpkin Pete's one hell of a consolation. Besides, did you even like the guy?" She scrunched up her face. "Wait, don't tell me you're one of those people? A sun...thunder...whatever...the sort that acts mean to cover up their, uh, unresolved romantic feelings—"
"WHAT? NO!" Sable yelled, sounding more like his usual self. "Those books are tainting your mind, Yang! And I have better taste than that! Give me some credit!" Ruby sighed in relief. For some reason, the idea of Jaune and Sable being...together-together...just felt wrong to her. And not because they were both boys! She wasn't some kind of—what was the word—some kind of homophone, darn it!
Weiss clutched at her chest. "Thank gods. I would have had to seriously question your standards. But then why?"
"Why? The worst student in the year just walked out on us, we might get a pity Pyrrha out of it, and you don't see anything wrong with that?" Sable put on a mocking imitation of Ozpin's voice. "Oh dear, Mr. Schnee! I'm so sorry that you were too stupid to tell your partner was a fraud, until he literally spelled it out for you! How fortunate, for we have a spare Invincible Girl lying around! Try not to misplace this one too, will you?"
"Does sound kind of cheap, when you put it like that." said Yang.
"Cheap? It's an insult!" He slapped the wall in agitation. "I'm going to kill that ingrate! This is how he repays us? After we spent all our evenings trying to get him into shape? After we walked across a sea of garbage to save his sorry behind? After we got covered in sap for him?" Yang shuddered at the memory. "After I unlocked his gods-damned Aura?!"
"YOU WHAT?!" Weiss roared. Everyone flinched at the sound. Ruby sometimes wondered how her prim and proper partner could possibly be twin to SJBY's short-fused leader, but in that moment she had no doubt. Weiss's icy eyes were ablaze as she grabbed her brother by the collar. Judging from Sable's nervous expression, he hadn't meant to say that last part. "You are going to explain this. Now." She pushed Sable into the dorm bathroom and slammed the door behind them.
Yang whistled. "Welp, someone's in for a...uh...Weissy lecture? Eh, not my best work." Her sister hung her head in shame. "I've got a lot on my mind, all right?"
Wait, what was that about Jaune's Aura?
"So I take it the dunce didn't even have his Aura unlocked in during initiation. And you thought it would be a good idea to unlock it for him in the middle of a Grimm-infested forest. Am I right?"
"He would've died if I hadn't! There was a pack of Beowolves after us!" Sable defended himself. Weiss did not ease up on her glower.
"You didn't answer the question. Are those the facts of what happened?" Weiss pressed on. The confrontation would have been more dramatic if they weren't crammed into the tiny dorm bathroom, penned between the shower, the toilet, and a counter jam-packed with hair products.
"Yes..." Sable admitted. "But we weren't that close to dying..."
"You absolute imbecile!" Weiss shouted. "You've never even tried an Aura unlocking before! How bad was the backlash? Tell me!"
"Not bad!" Sable insisted, before caving under her incredulous glare. "All right, I might have blacked out for a minute. Two at most."
"You could have died." Their chosen line of work was a dangerous one, true, and there were always Huntsmen who ended up making the ultimate sacrifice. But not before the first day of school, and certainly not to save one idiot who got in over his head. She pictured a no doubt lonely funeral, one blond boy awkwardly standing there with a bouquet and a 'sorry I got you killed' card. The thought made her blood boil. "For him?!"
"What was I supposed to do, huh? Leave him to get eaten?"
"Well, no...but it was an exam, Sable! The teachers were watching over us. Our Scrolls still work in the forest, you could've contacted them!"
"We would've failed initiation!" Sable snapped. "Your instructors will not intervene, that was what Ozpin said! We were meant to find a partner, make it to the temple, and get relics on our own!"
"Better that than—"
"You'd have me go back a failure? Face Father and Mother and Whitley alone, while you stayed here with your team?" Her brother cut her off. "I'd rather die!"
He spat those words with such venom that Weiss took a step backwards. She came rather dangerously close to falling into the toilet. The worst part was, she honestly wasn't sure how much of an exaggeration it was. If she had to guess, Sable would probably prefer returning as a failure to returning in a casket, but not by much, and mostly because getting killed in an entrance exam would be flat out embarrassing.
"I wouldn't rather you died..." she muttered. Not the most heartfelt of sentiments, though by Schnee family standards it was almost as good as an 'I love you'. "Give up on him. He's not worth it. Just go to Ozpin, explain what happened, and move on?" Sable did not shout at her again, but his mouth was set in a stubborn line. "Look, I know unlocking someone's Aura is supposed to be...special, but I'm sure you'll have more chances! And they'll be better than that ungrateful little con man." Weiss wasn't much for comforting speeches, but she kept going. "It wasn't even your fault. That boy's just no good for you." Her brain finally caught up to her mouth. "As a partner, I mean. A combat partner!" Sweet gods, she needed to purge those trashy romance dialogues from her mind.
"Not you too..." Sable groaned. "I told you, it's not like that! As if I'd go for tall, blond and scraggly!"
"Right. Right. Just...consider it? Consider a replacement, that is!" She sincerely hoped that Jaune Arc would do them all a favor and stay lost.
Saturday was almost over. They'd left the room only grab a bite to eat, and to inform Professor Goodwitch of the Blake situation. Goodwitch had promised them the school would look into it. She'd seemed displeased at the news, but not really surprised, which bugged Yang a bit. Did she know something they didn't? They had not told her of the other situation yet. If Goodwitch knew Jaune had faked his transcripts, SJBY would officially be SBY in a heartbeat. Of course, the reckoning would still come on Monday, when he failed to show up in class. Unless they came up with a really good excuse, like him suddenly unlocking an uncontrollable invisibility Semblance...
"We should go, Ruby." said Weiss. "It's late, and I think we've done all we can here."
"Wait a minute!" Ruby held her hand up. "Um, Sable? Just wanted to say thanks. For unlocking Jaune's Aura. I mean, I don't think he would have survived jumping off the Nevermore without it so you probably saved his life and all...holy crap, how did he survive getting launched the first time?" Ruby pondered that mystery for a second. "Um, anyways...thank you for that. No matter what happens next. I think you're a...um, good person, deep down?" Having said her part, she followed Weiss out. "...really deep down."
With that, they were alone again. Gods, was it desolate in here. She missed Blake and Jaune's...well, not conversation skills, but general ability to take up space. And their leader (just her leader now) was as grim and silent as an ice sculpture. Maybe he was just baffled by Ruby's words. How many people could have ever referred to Sable as a 'good person'?
"You all right, Icy-Hot? Okay, stupid question." The conspicuous lack of shouting and ranting answered that question. "Say something, will you?"
"What a shitshow..." Sable replied, shaking his head. "So when are you leaving, Yang? At this rate, Team S has a nice ring to it."
"Like hell I will!" Yang walked up to his chair and stood there awkwardly for a moment, before gingerly laying a hand on his shoulder. "Look, this isn't exactly how I imagined Beacon would go either. But tell you what, Yang Xiao Long doesn't quit!" Her name was Yang Xiao Long, after all, not Yang Branwen. "I've wanted to be a Huntress since I was five, and I'll do it even if it's just the two of us. We'll just have to be as strong as two normal people! You can do your Dust thing, and I'll...punch people! Uh, you're the leader, so I'll leave the plan to you—"
Sable rose slowly from his seat. "Well, we'll need more practice to get there, won't we? I'm tired of this room!" He picked up the sword sitting by his bedside. "Come on. Let's fight!"
Clang. Yang put her arms up to block, and his sword bounced off Ember Celica with a shower of golden sparks. "You know what they say!" she grunted. "Never bring a knife to a fist fight!" By unspoken agreement, they refrained from using glyphs, Dust, and bullets. Melee only. After all the nonsense of the last couple days, both of them needed to just hit something.
"Where did I go wrong?" Sable demanded. "I thought things were turning around!" Feint and backslash. He scored a solid hit on Yang's unarmored right elbow.
"Ow...I don't know, man." A gauntlet whistled by his ear. "Sure sounded like Jaune had a lot of stuff bottled up. Some people are just too nice to complain normally. Then one day, boom goes the dynamite. It was sort of mean to keep calling him Vomit Boy, wasn't it?" Yang looked rather guilty. "Uh...you don't actually mind your nickname, do you? I mean, I figured if you really hated it you'd, like, try and stab me or something, but to be safe—"
"I don't care." Icy-Hot wasn't even that insulting. At least it carried some positive connotations as to his...attractiveness. "I'm not some delicate flower, Yang!"
"You're a real snowflake, though." Yang winked. "Get it? Because of your emblem?"
"Explaining doesn't make it any funnier!" He put rather more force than was necessary into his next swing.
"Right, chill out!" said Yang. "Look, you could stand to be nicer, a lot nicer actually, but I don't think this is really your fault, you know? Couldn't have seen it coming. Between Jaune and his transcripts, and Blake's...whatever it is, we've just had some rotten luck."
"I don't believe in that! You make your own luck!" Luck. The excuse of cowards who couldn't own up to their failures. There had to be something he could have done better. There always was! He should have clued in on Jaune's transcripts earlier and smacked some sense into the boy's head. As for Blake, maybe she wouldn't have been so secretive about her little errand, if only he'd gotten her to...talk to him more...ugh. Sable was very much not keen on prying into his teammates' personal problems. He certainly wouldn't want them asking probing questions about him in return. The Schnee closet had a lot of metaphorical skeletons, after all, much like the Schnee mines had a lot of literal ones. He'd been prepared to train his underlings to perfection and to formulate tactics that would destroy any Grimm with ease, not to play psychologist and deal with deep-seated teen angst. Even Ruby, that child, was doing an infinitely better job. At least RRWN had all four members accounted for. Some leader I turned out to be.
"Not a fan of luck, huh? You should meet my uncle some day." Yang remarked cryptically. "And I don't think you're a bad leader, man. I'd rather have you than Cardin, at any rate."
Did I say that out loud? Damn it, things were really getting to him if he just let that admission slip. Leaders couldn't afford to show that kind of weakness; it was one of the few things he and Jacques could agree on. What was next, was he going pull a Jaune and start babbling about daddy issues?
"Yeah you did." Yang chuckled at his expression. "And what do you mean, daddy issues?"
"Never mind that!" he waved it off. "And it's not much of an endorsement, being better than Winchester."
"Hey, just take the compliment already!" she said. "Yeah, you get kind of...um, intense sometimes. But I saw how hard you tried to make things work! A lot of people would've just given up on Jaune at the start, you know?" Oh, he knew. He might have done it too, if it weren't for that incident back in the Emerald Forest. "And you've got nice hair, too. Almost as nice as mine!"
Well, if trying hard was what he was good for, might as well try even harder. "Yang..." He looked out the window. The city stretched out below them, bathed in the light of the broken moon. He had a feeling Jaune and Blake were still down there somewhere. "What do you say we go down to Vale tomorrow?"
"Is that a date, Icy-Hot?" Yang said teasingly. "Because I'm really not in the mood for it. Just because a girl says she likes your hair..."
Sable snorted. "I meant to look for them." The idea of going on a date under the circumstances was amusing for some reason—fiddling while Mistral burned, as the saying went. "No more sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves. We'll dig Jaune out of whatever hole he's hiding in and drag him back to Beacon, whether he likes it or not! We'll track Blake down and kick her ass for running off like that!" Likelihood of finding two needles in a Vale-sized haystack be damned. "And if it doesn't work, well...we tried hard..."
"So we're gonna look for two people, in one of the biggest cities on Remnant, without any idea where they might've gone?" Yang summarized. "I've had worse searches. I'm in."
"Really? Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Uh...no. Twelve years and I didn't find anything. I did learn to never bring a baby into the Grimm-infested woods, so there's that."
It felt good to be doing something, Ruby thought. As soon as Yang had mentioned their plans for the day, she'd offered to pitch in. Anything beat biting her nails at Beacon, wondering if Jaune was safe, or if Blake had been kidnapped by some mysterious villain. She'd even volunteered her teammates! Nora had immediately dragged Ren off, shouting about a treasure hunt, and they hadn't seen the pair since. Weiss had grumbled heartily about how pointless it was to search an entire city for two people, but she was here anyways. It was always nice to see how much her partner cared.
Although maybe she had a point. The search plan seemed a bit scattershot so far. They were trying to hit places the missing pair might have gone: hotels, grocery stores, seafood restaurants...and bookstores. Yang hadn't even let Ruby go into most of them, and made her stand outside with Weiss covering her eyes, which probably looked really dumb.
"JAUNE ARC! SHOW YOURSELF!"
Also, she didn't think Sable screaming at the air was going to help. People were giving them some weird looks. At least he was trying.
"Will you stop that?" Weiss sighed. "I'm telling you, Arc probably took the first ship back home."
"That would be the rational thing to do." Sable agreed. "Except we're talking about the same person who thought he could make it into Beacon without Aura or any training whatsoever, so I highly doubt he did."
"Whoa!" Yang gasped. "Blake replied to our last message, Icy-Hot! Not a drill!"
"Huh?" Ruby peeked at the Scroll.
Yang: reply or we burn your smut
Blake: WHAT
"Holy crap, she's okay! She wasn't kidnapped!" Ruby cheered. "But then...why?"
"We don't know that." Weiss cautioned. "It could be someone else with her Scroll."
Blake: please no don't burn the Lusty Dragon Maid ;_;
Weiss looked to be having a traumatic flashback. "Never mind. It's definitely her."
Sable: What the fuck Blake?
Yang: why were u ghosting us like that. thought u got kidnapped or something!
Blake: i can explain i promise. later. busy right now.
Blake: keep those books safe. please.
Sable: That doesn't explain anything. What are you doing? Why weren't you answering? Are you in danger?
They waited a few minutes, but Blake did not reply. "She's gone again." Yang facepalmed. "I'm even more confused now."
"Seriously! How can people be so bad at communicating?" Sable wondered. "Yang, we're the only sane ones on this team..."
Ruby and Weiss locked eyes, and silently agreed not to dispute the sanity of their family members. Speaking of insanity, she wondered what Nora and Ren were up to. Hopefully they were actually looking, and not just going on one of their not-dates.
"Wow! Crazy, huh?" Nora gasped. "What are the odds we'd randomly bump into each other on the street, two days after the first time? It's like our lives are part of some grand narrative that's overly dependent on contrived coincidences!"
Ren stared at the energetic orange-haired girls in front of him. This was getting out of hand. Now there were two of them?
"It's good to see you again, Friend Nora!" Penny replied. "Is this boy your friend? I did not have the chance to acquaint myself with him on our previous meeting!"
"Sure is!" Nora grabbed him in her trademark Valkyrie headlock. Resistance was futile. "Ren can be your friend too! But not best friends, because he's my best friend already, but we're just best friends, not together-together..." Ren tuned out Nora's convoluted explanation of their relationship status. It was only the six thousandth time or so he'd heard it.
"Together-together? There is a friendship level beyond best friends?" Penny asked curiously. "Perhaps I will seek to achieve 'together-together' with Best Friend Sun, one day!"
Oh dear. Ren would have to give the monkey boy some survival tips, if they ever saw each other again. "Nora, come on." he urged. "We're supposed to be looking for Ruby's sister's teammates." When he put it like that, it really seemed like this was none of their business, but when half of each team was related, everyone else got pulled in for the ride. Not that he resented it. Family was important. He'd have done the same for his, if he had any left. Except Nora. Did she count, though? Ren didn't think you were supposed to have those kinds of dreams about family, ever...
"A search? Allow me to help!" Penny said confidently. "I'm well-versed in numerous search algorithms! I recommend a depth-first approach, myself."
"Thank you for the offer, but I don't think it'd be right to drag you into this. Don't you agree—"
"HECK YEAH! The more the merrier!" Nora cheered. Oh no. "Team PNPL has a nice ring to it! And we'll be perfectly balanced now! As all things should be! "
Wait, wait. Ren was pretty sure Nora had just spelled Pineapple with four letters, and there were only three of them there. "Nora, what did you do?"
"Nothing." Their hundredth stop gave the same result as the previous ninety-nine. Ruby wasn't feeling quite so good anymore. The sun was visibly going down, and the sound of bells could be heard, as if to mark them running out of time.
Wait, that was just someone's Scroll ringtone. "Ugh." Sable reached into his pocket, then his eyes nearly popped out of his head "HOLY—JAUNE! YOU IDIOT!" he screamed into the Scroll. "Where the hell are you?!"
"Jaune!" Ruby and Yang rushed forwards. Weiss sighed in seeming disappointment. Sure enough the knight's voice came from the screen. He sounded nervous. "Hey guys...I'm at the docks, Pier 39 I think? Blake's here too and—"
"Don't you dare move!" In spite of his harsh words, Sable's blue eyes practically shone with relief. "When I get my hands on you both—"
"Let me finish!" Jaune said urgently. "There's a White Fang thing going on down there, and I don't think they've seen us but there's a lot of them—"
"What?"
"What?!"
"WHAT?!"
"I KNEW IT!"
"How? Why?" Weiss sputtered. "Get out of there before you both get killed, you dolt!"
"Sweet brothers, she just ran right in!" Jaune cried. "Sun, we gotta go!" The call cut off abruptly.
"AHHH! CRAP! CRAP!" They were at least half a mile from the docks! Ruby broke into a sprint, frantically typing a message for Ren and Nora. Hopefully those two were closer.
"Wait guys, I got an idea!" Yang pulled out her own Scroll. "Hope you're ready to drop in!"
Ugh. Hard one to write. Turned out more melodramatic than I wanted. Then again, our boi was never going to handle this in the emotionally healthy way.
This is probably the last chapter for a couple weeks due to various Thanksgiving-y things (yep, American). But next time, we get Jaune, Sun and Blake's side of the story. And oh boy, is the docks fight shaping up to be a mess...